Now I am a control freak. I like to control everything – just ask my hubby – he will 1000% agree.

As a business owner I want to have control of what, how, when and where my marketing happens. And I can only have that if I am using platforms where I have that control. I want to make my own rules.

So how do you take back that control and make it work for you as a B2B service based business owner?

You focus on your OWN channels!

An owned asset is one you have 100% ownership and control over. This includes:

• Your website (your most important marketing asset)
• Your database
• Your brand
• Your blog or written content
• Your content
• Your podcast or videos you create

You full 100% control over what they look like, how they work, what information is included, the look and feel etc.

You decide what information, images and features are on your website.
You decided exactly what goes in your email marketing to clients.
You decide 100% the content of your brand.
You control 100% your brand look and feel.

What is not an owned asset is Social Media

You do not own your social media page. You are just renting the space on their platform. Much like renting an apartment in a building that someone else owns.

It’s their platform so you have to play by their rules.  They choose who sees your content, where they see it, how often they see it, and what it looks like.

You are building your marketing on unstable foundations and we want stable foundations or all the time and effort you have put it up until today will come tumbling down in a crushing heap.

You have no control over the algorithms, no control over how it looks (you need to work within their guidelines), no control over how the content is shown and who actually sees it, no control when it becomes pure pay to play. So why would you spend hours, months, and years focused on social media channels that you are renting? It’s a massive waste of time.

It makes sense to focus on the channels and assets you control so let’s talk about those:

1. Your Website – this is your most important marketing channel. This is where you should send all your traffic & your potential clients. It is your virtual shopfront. It is where potential clients can see all your have to offer, what you know, what you specialise in, how you have helped others and what your secret sauce or differentiator is.

   You control the images, the words, the message style and tone, what pages you have included, and where to send them as a next step.  Spending time to make sure your website ticks all the right boxes is time very well spent. I covered this in Ep 9 of series 1.

2. Your database – again this is one of the most underutilised channels for most businesses. Email is still more effective than social media. 49% of customers say that they would like to receive promotional emails at least once a week from their favorite brand.

• • But make it interesting and engaging
  • Give it a Catchy headline that makes them want to open it
  • The key is to not overload them with too much content. Professional service providers are often bad at this as they a quarterly email with every blog write, links to articles and just way too much information formatted in a way that no one will read
  • You want one key message – break it up with bullet points or images
  • Make it enjoyable & engaging
  • Include your brand personality

3. Your brand – Your brand tells your story. It shows the personality of the business. It shows your values and what you represent.
   
   This is really important as your brand is what attracts people to you.  Your brand will appeal to a particular segment of the market. You don’t want it to appeal to everyone. You want it to attract the RIGHT FIT clients for your business.

4. Your blog or written content – The content you create, the articles or blogs you write for your own website are owned assets. You have control over them, where they are placed, the words, the CTA’s, and how much information you share. These can be repurposed across other channels, like your emails to clients or your podcast or videos.
   
   And the same goes with your podcast or videos you create – these are owned assets that you have control over.

You should have control over your marketing and it should be consistent. Remember those two very important C words!